News International executive chairman James Murdoch has apologised to MPs over the emergence of fresh evidence about the Gordon Taylor phone hacking case in 2008.

A series of emails have emerged that discuss the case brought by Taylor, the boss of the footballers' union, after his legal team unearthed a transcript of messages taken from his phone by the News of the World.

The messages claim that Talyor, who received a substantial damages payment from News International, wanted to "demonstrate what happened to him was rife throughout the organisation".

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In a letter to MPs, Murdoch apologised that the evidence had "only now come to light", but said that he was "confident" that he had not read the full email chain.

"I now appears that [former News of the World editor Colin] Myler sent an email to me on Saturday afternoon, June 7 2008, in order to request a short meeting the following Tuesday (June 10) for an update on the Gordon Taylor case," said Murdoch in the letter.

"Given the timing of my response, just over two minutes after Mr Myler sent his email to me, and the fact that I typically received emails on my BlackBerry on weekends, I am confident that I did not review the full email chain either then, or afterwards."

Murdoch insisted that he would have relied on the oral briefing from Myler on June 10, as he "previously described" in his testimony before the committee in July.

He added: "I would also like to take this opportunity to reaffirm my past testimony that I was not aware of evidence that either pointed to widespread wrongdoing or indicated that further investigation was necessary.

"I apologise this has only now come to light and that it is being brought to the committee at this late stage of your enquiry."

The email chain in question starts with a report on a meeting between Taylor's lawyer Mark Lewis, which discusses the size of the potential settlement figure and says that Taylor wanted to see News Group Newspapers, publisher of the News of the World, "suffer" for the hacking.

But the critical aspect of the email chain was the suggestion by Taylor that phone hacking went beyond just royal reporter Clive Goodman, who was jailed in 2007.

Murdoch told the MPs that he was not made aware of any documents or emails suggesting that hacking was more widespread when he signed off the Taylor settlement.

Myler and former News of the World legal chief Tom Crone insist that they "did inform" Murdoch about the existence of the evidence, but Murdoch says that their claims are "misleading".

News International shut down the News of the World in July after it was found that the paper had hacked into the phones of various high profile people, most notably murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.